Camoflauge

I put in for a quick trip through the local big marsh. It is a very high tide, with only the last bit of it coming in. The sky is overcast, a thick humid type of cloud that can become a thunderstorm if the clouds stay put and the air currents go more vertical. It is in the mid 60's with a light wind coming up the river.

33 Sandpipers

I pass a Yellow Crowned Night Heron at the top of the marsh. Then, I head over to the fully flooded Nell's channel. In fact, the entire marsh is well flooded with the only dry spots being the phragmites patches, which don't survive regular periodic flooding. These high tides compress many of the birds that are in the marsh. While Ducks, Geese, and other water birds don't mind, the waders - Herons, Sandpipers, Willets and Yellow Legs, are on high spots waiting for feeding to resume.

Greater Yellow Legs (there is a Lesser Yellow Legs)

Paddling past a long floating mat of last year's phragmites and spartina, I notice a couple Sandpipers. Then, as my eyes are fixed, I realize that there are easily a hundred Sandpipers on this fifty foot long mat. And, that is how it goes whenever I am close to one of these mats. I spot a pair of Yellow Legs, and it becomes six or eight. I spot a Sandpiper, and suddenly ten of them flex their wings. Anything with a speckled pattern on the back practically disappears.

The lower marsh is flooded so that not even any of the spartina breaks the surface. I spot and hear a flock of Brandts over by Milford Point, while heading towards the east shore. Then, I cut down toward the central phragmites patch, where I find the nesting Swans busy raising their nest. Then, over to the east channel and back up the river.